Axe falls on MediaCity bus service

Salford council has slammed the government after cash to create a bus service to MediaCityUK was withdrawn. Labour had announced before the General Election that £1.7m would be spent on boosting bus services in Greater Manchester.

Salford council has slammed the government after cash to create a bus service to MediaCityUK was withdrawn.

Labour had announced before the General Election that £1.7m would be spent on boosting bus services in Greater Manchester.

But the Conservative and Lib Dem coalition has withdrawn funding for the so-called Kickstart project in spending cuts.

It included £382,000 for a bus service from the MediaCityUK complex to Salford Shopping City and Salford Crescent train station.

Salford council leader John Merry said: "This represents a major setback for the concept of local involvement in MediaCityUK and obviously we are disappointed that the coalition government appears not to take this issue as seriously as they should.

"The council will need to consider how best, with limited resources, we can respond."

The Kickstart scheme paid for trial bus services to see if they would prove popular enough with passengers to be taken over by a commercial operator.

The Department for Transport gave the go-ahead for seven schemes including the MediaCityUK link in March.

A number of services in Manchester, Bolton, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside and Wigan were also set to be improved.

Coun Ian Macdonald, the chairman of the Greater Manchester Integrated Transport Authority, which sets the region’s transport policy, said: "GMPTE is actively working with Salford City Council to review the MediaCityUK bus service, which would have been supported in its early stages through the Kickstart programme."